Former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson, and his two business partners plan to open a 40-acre marijuana ranch 60 miles southwest of Death Valley National Park. According to mirror.com Tyson Ranch will allow growers to cultivate their crop and there will also be a cultivation school to help growers get the most out of their strains.

The operating company, Tyson Holistic, will employ mainly veterans and bring much needed jobs to the city it’s in.

The November 26th Baltimore Sun story about East Baltimore neighborhoods was discouraging: “Poverty Makes a Powerful Statement”. The poorest area of East Baltimore, north of Hopkins Hospital, struggles with a grim list of challenges: poverty, violence, vacant properties, liquor stores and the lowest life expectancy in the city.

But in four renovated and connected rowhomes on Mura Street, behind four colorful doors, daily miracles are happening. The Club at Collington Square is an afterschool and summer program, a consistent, loving, educational haven for 92 children in a very tough neighborhood.

Here, Club staff are teaching and building the leaders this neighborhood and this city need. The staff know that changing young lives changes everyone’s future.

Program Director Vanessa Williams has intentionally recruited and developed a staff of young leaders as teachers and assistants — almost 100 percent of whom live in the neighborhood The Club serves. These dedicated staff provide a highly structured program between the hours of 3:15 and 6:30 chock full of academics, enrichment, play and homework help, and provide a snack and hot dinner cooked by The Club Chef in the on-site Community Kitchen. The program emphasizes student voice and leadership with roles for older scholars to mentor and serve younger scholars, and an elected student council.

Strong City Baltimore assumed operations of The Club at Collington Square when Episcopal Community Services of Maryland sought a more sustainable future. Strong City believes deeply in The Club and in its incredible staff, who do heroic work every day with some of Baltimore’s most vulnerable children.

Strong City assumed operations of The Club in October with a $130,000 deficit, which we have already reduced to $65,000. Your gift today will help us keep the doors open and enable the staff to be there every day with what our scholars need most: love, nourishment, academics and enrichment. It’s easy to despair when the headlines are so discouraging.

But we know that loving and investing in Baltimore’s children is the answer. Your gift will help the Club continue to build young leaders that will change Baltimore’s future.

Click here to give! Be sure to designate your gift to “The Club at Collington Square” and consider joining The Friends of The Club with a monthly gift of $100.

PBS has suspended distribution of late-night talk show Tavis Smiley after an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against host Tavis Smiley, Variety reports. Smiley has denied the allegations. The network released the following statement: